The United Nations Charter and international law are our guide to creating a world free from the scourge of war. Yet Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine directly violated both.
Two years on – and a decade since Russia’s attempted illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol – the war in Ukraine remains an open wound at the heart of Europe.
It is high time for peace – a just peace, based on the United Nations Charter, international law and General Assembly resolutions.
The Charter is unequivocal: The United Nations is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.
International disputes shall be settled by peaceful means;
And all States shall refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any other State.
Mechanisms to settle disputes are set out in Chapter VI of the Charter. They include negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, and resort to regional agencies or arrangements.
These must be the tools we use to settle grievances. […]
In any war, everyone suffers. But the people of Ukraine are suffering appallingly from the war inflicted on them by Russia. Over ten and half thousand civilian men, women and children have been killed – though the true figure is likely higher. Damage and destruction of hospitals, schools, health facilities and civilian infrastructure is frequent and intensifying.
Ninety education and health care facilities were damaged or destroyed in January alone. And amidst a brutal winter, over 380 towns and villages across the country were without electricity earlier this month, according to the Ukrainian energy company.
The United Nations has documented widespread and disturbing brutality:
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine reported civilians and prisoners tortured, and more than two hundred cases of sexual violence, mostly, but not only at the hands of the Russian Federation forces.
All perpetrators must be held to account. Läs talet